Wendell Challenger
Senior Analyst
2014
  • Ph.D.: Simon Fraser University (Statistics) 2010
  • M.Sc.: Queen’s University (Biology) 2004
  • B.Sc.: Simon Fraser University (Environmental Science) 2001
Dr. Wendell Challenger is a Senior Analyst whose expertise is in the field of statistical ecology. His work at LGL Limited has focused on the analysis of a wide‑array of data types from spatial data, to radio telemetry and camera trap data. He has also been involved in all stages of research, including experimental design, study planning, equipment setup and upkeep, fish tagging, data processing, statistical analysis, and reporting.

For his doctoral thesis, Dr. Challenger worked within the mark‑recapture and occupancy frameworks focusing on problems often found in ecological data sets, such as detection, heterogeneity, and uncertainty. Within mark‑recapture he extended the Jolly−Seber abundance model to handle unknown or missing stratum assignments (an important component for modelling heterogeneity), and he extended the Cormack−Jolly−Seber survival model to accommodate non independence between mating pairs (a source of heterogeneity for both survival and capture parameters). He also reformulated occupancy models to use the capture‑recapture multievent approach to allow for more detailed modeling of detection and occupancy parameters using techniques pioneered in the mark‑recapture field.